Duck Fox

Image Credit: Marvel

Okay, I'm man enough. I can admit I was completely wrong. In my last review, I lamented Black Widow's lack of ambition, and "popcorn quality." This issue has me eating all those words and not a single kernel of popcorn.

The third issue--titled "Foliage"-- opens similarly to preceding books. Natasha's narration outlines her feelings about her home, or lack thereof. A home comes with distractions. Like the cute black cat that keeps scratching at her door (we now have a name, Liho!). Natasha's neighbor also notices the little furball and shows up at Natasha's door stoop, ostensibly to remind her not to feed the strays. But she's sporting a noticeable bruise, and the conversation soon turns from black cats to black eyes as Natasha reminds the woman, Ana, she should leave her husband. Unfortunately, Ana does have a home. This theme of not wanting to leave a home when you've got it, and not being able to find one if you don't already have one returns later in the issue. For now, the issue slides into the "espionage of the month."

Black Widow has been tasked with retrieving a wrongfully convicted man in Argentina. Angelo, the man she's tasked with rescuing, is only half thrilled when Widow shows up, convinced she's not up to the task. Much like me going into this review, he's pleasantly surprised. Widow tries to keep it all business and not let thoughts of Ana and her abusive husband enter her mind as she guides Angelo through the prison and into the wilds of the surrounding jungle. As usual, this little spy vs. wishes-they-were-spies segment is wonderfully crafted. Widow's narration explains her incredible skill at blending in with her surroundings and becoming one with the environment as a side effect of her not having a place where she belongs. More beautifully put: "It is the unreachable truth to belong anywhere. The other edge of that is the unfortunate truth: you must first belong nowhere."

Several nonlethal takedowns later and Widow gets her escapee to his helicopter. It's here where the issue offers the obligatory twist-- Angelo isn't actually just a wrongfully accused schmuck, but instead he's got a past as a butcher... of people. Without getting into the hairy details, Black Widow makes an executive decision and throws him off the copter mid flight. She goes down with him, but when they land in the crocodile infested waters below her shiv givers her an edge. After all, crocodiles prefer their prey bleeding and weakened, so a nice stab wound to the gut is just what it takes to get their motors running.

The crocodile gets a nice meal, and Natasha Romanov gets to go home feeling satisfied she didn't help a vile murderer escape prison. I doubt she missed a wink of sleep on her comfy bed in her Buenos Aires safehouse. Said safehouse is where she calls our favorite lawyer/BAMF assistant, Isaiah, who tells her Maria Hill of S.H.I.E.L.D. is itching to have a talk with her. The tease of a Ukrainian embassy official in danger is good, but the real reason this issue is so amazing is the closing moments in Natasha Romanov's life. The final three pages consist of Natasha returning home and storming over to her neighbor Ana's home. More poignant narration ensues, this time about how home is less a physical place and more a psychic pain, and soon Ana's husband gets some physical pain as Natasha confronts him. Things go as you'd expect, and man is it wonderful to see this guy get a beatdown. And I'm not saying that because of the art. Well, not just because of the art. Seriously, the aesthetic that Noto has created is perfectly intact. Lots of attention to detail is sprinkled through the muddily colored panels, and the red outlining continues to invigorate the action scenes.

The real hero, though, is those last few pages. Now lots of comics have the werewithal to tackle a hard issue like spousal abuse, but despite generally being well meaning, you're likely to see it sloppily slipped into the tail end of a story where the abuse victim is a hopeless caricature and the hero fixes her life by throwing the guy in jail, or some other melodramatic aesop handled with all the originality of a Lifetime original movie or an afterschool special. While Black Widow at first glance may seem to repeat the first trope mentioned above (after all, Widow does deck the guy), it quickly veers into uncharted territory by Natasha not bothering to do anything other than advise Ana to leave. Not because she doesn't care, but because she understands that it's not always so easy to leave your home.

The theme of the entire issue-- what makes a home-- is brought full circle by Ana's silent shame as Natasha exits her home. The same place where a man beat her for months or even years. Natasha's beatdown is, in a lot of ways, her way of trying to fix Ana's home, and maybe even make herself feel like she's got a home she can go back to. But deep down she knows she doesn't have any such place. Just like Ana, she's good at making herself feel safe in a world where hundreds or thousands of people want her dead and where every little victory is overshadowed by the thousands of sins she's previously committed. But there's solace in the closing moments of the issue, when Natasha realizes that even without a permanent home, she's still got a place to go back to rest and regroup. A place to feel marginally safe in her crazy world. And really, isn't that something we can all relate to?

9.5/10

Fox Prints:

• I hope Ana is promoted to regular. We need more solid characters in Natasha's human life, since we've got Isaiah in her spy world. 
• So we got a drop in from the rest of the world, but I'm super glad it was Maria Hill instead of someone more... cartoony, for lack of a better word. This series isn't super realistic or anything, but it would be the kind of book where an Iron Man or Hulk could throw a wrench in the darker tone.
• The Letters Page is now titled "To Russian with Love." I approve.